#5
Generally, voter fraud is punished by a felony conviction which in theory prohibits someone from ever voting again. However, as Minnesota (ie Al Franken election) has demonstrated such 'tags' have little meaning when it comes to voting. Convictions are set aside or abrogated by completing service or keeping a clean record for a probationary period of time, thus not a real punishment for the crime committed.

[NORTHJERSEY] In an appearance late Sunday afternoon at a predominantly black church in Trenton, embattled U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez drew broad parallels between himself and other minority leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Democrat from Hudson County blamed his current troubles, which include questions about his relationship with a contributor and the possibility of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, on right-wing bloggers.

Speaking to a crowd of roughly 300 people who gathered at The Shiloh Baptist Church for a Black History Month celebration, Menendez appeared to surprise his own staff by using the venue to offer a spirited defense to questions that have dogged him for weeks. Before the speech, aides suggested that any questions about the issues would be cut off.

"I have felt the sting of discrimination," he said, to cheers from the crowd, which included many members of the state Legislature and U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., D-Essex. "It has never been easy."

"Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals ... seeking to destroy a lifetime of work," he said. "In the end, I believe that justice will overcome the forces of darkness."

#8
"The bumps are compounded by yet another recent Menendez mini-scandal, in which an unpaid intern in his office was found to be an undocumented immigrant and registered sex offender, but wasn't arrested until after the election. (Homeland Security said it was "categorically false" that the arrest was delayed for political purposes.) Up to this point, none of it has touched Menendez, but you know what they say about keeping certain company."

[VOA News] With the crisis in Syria topping his agenda, U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know KerryFormer Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... is in London on the first leg of an 11-day visit that includes Turkey and the Middle East.

Kerry's next stop in Berlin will be brief, but significant. He is to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... after she returns from a day trip to Turkey. Kerry also is to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Analyst Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations says the ongoing Syria conflict will not be high on Lavrov's list of things to discuss with Kerry.

"These deaths of Russian children in the United States will be the key issue in these meetings. It is very emotional right now in Russia," Meister says.

#3
I wonder if this was the same state agency that thought it was just fine for the now permanently closed New Orleans Charity Hospital to keep its emergency generators below sea level, to have no helicopter pad, and to have no plan for emergency evacuation of patients and staff in case of local flooding.

#4
Several years ago, the leading lights of Seattle paid to have professionals shoot a bunch of geese that were pooping all over Green lake, but the Health Dept would not let them give the meat to the various shelters; instead the carcasses had to be taken to the dreaded'undisclosed locations' for burial......

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.